3 ms·

I hesitate to say it, but at least the datacenter companies haven't realized that federal railroad laws mean that the feds can preempt state and local governmen

by bombcar 7mo ago

I hesitate to say it, but at least the datacenter companies haven't realized that federal railroad laws mean that the feds can preempt state and local governments with regards to railroads and yards ... though it may be hard to argue that a datacenter is a necessary part of a railroad.

foota 7mo ago
Snowpiercer but with data centers? The breeze would help with cooling!
barbazoo 7mo ago
[dead]
toast0 7mo ago
A railroad has to track a lot of data; what's in each car (declared by customer), what train it's attached to, where is it on maintenance schedules; similar for the rail and signal infrastructure, etc; in today's modern environment, they need multiple datacenters for high availability. Something something route planning to reduce the number of coupling changes, etc, etc. Edit: also, a lot of long distance fiber runs on railroad right of way, so datacenters at rail yards may be well placed for connectivity.
- freehorse 7mo ago
  A railroad is the infrastructure for transporting commodities. In the modern digital economy, datacenters along with the whole internet infrastructure are the modern railroads, which need protection and deregulation for the sakes of safety, national security, economy etc etc. Maybe this argument works better if the others don't?
  - mcmcmc 7mo ago
    Maybe instead of performing mental gymnastics to expand the executive’s power well beyond beyond what Congress has legislated, we should just pass new laws
    - freehorse 7mo ago
      I am not sure this is a good idea. Having congress legislate just adds friction, removes chances of personal gain for the the executive branch, and has the potential of actually changing parts of it based on democratic debate. A good middle position would be to have the executive power do its thing and have congress legislate/approve long after the fact has been established.
altairprime 7mo ago
It’d be a lot easier to argue that a railroad yard is a necessary part of a datacenter, and then eminent domain and pave it :) But there’s some sensible planning in linking datacenters and railroads, honestly. Truck-shipping 44U fully-loaded cargo racks in standardized quarter-containers would a lot more sense in today’s AI-proliferation context. And I’d be up for seeing datacenters lose their natural lock-in resistance to customer migrations; “a competitor offered us a 5% discount plus freight refunds if we shift at least 5 cars of racks to them” is a lot easier when your datacenter has cargo crane capacity. There’s still a place for bespoke DCs but for the cog-in-the-cloud stuff that we have now, it’s not a bad idea! (And, if you add a third rail for power-over-Ethernet, then you can start to have datacenter migrations that don’t cause an outage. Amtrak is already implementing the first stages of datacenter-grade connectivity for riders on their trains, though not amperes of the necessary degree yet.)
joezydeco 7mo ago
A LOT of fiber rides alongside railroad tracks. Easier to string and maintain.

by bombcar 7mo ago

foota 7mo ago

Snowpiercer but with data centers? The breeze would help with cooling!

barbazoo 7mo ago

[dead]

toast0 7mo ago

A railroad has to track a lot of data; what's in each car (declared by customer), what train it's attached to, where is it on maintenance schedules; similar for the rail and signal infrastructure, etc; in today's modern environment, they need multiple datacenters for high availability. Something something route planning to reduce the number of coupling changes, etc, etc. Edit: also, a lot of long distance fiber runs on railroad right of way, so datacenters at rail yards may be well placed for connectivity.

freehorse 7mo ago
A railroad is the infrastructure for transporting commodities. In the modern digital economy, datacenters along with the whole internet infrastructure are the modern railroads, which need protection and deregulation for the sakes of safety, national security, economy etc etc. Maybe this argument works better if the others don't?
- mcmcmc 7mo ago
  Maybe instead of performing mental gymnastics to expand the executive’s power well beyond beyond what Congress has legislated, we should just pass new laws
  - freehorse 7mo ago
    I am not sure this is a good idea. Having congress legislate just adds friction, removes chances of personal gain for the the executive branch, and has the potential of actually changing parts of it based on democratic debate. A good middle position would be to have the executive power do its thing and have congress legislate/approve long after the fact has been established.

altairprime 7mo ago

It’d be a lot easier to argue that a railroad yard is a necessary part of a datacenter, and then eminent domain and pave it :) But there’s some sensible planning in linking datacenters and railroads, honestly. Truck-shipping 44U fully-loaded cargo racks in standardized quarter-containers would a lot more sense in today’s AI-proliferation context. And I’d be up for seeing datacenters lose their natural lock-in resistance to customer migrations; “a competitor offered us a 5% discount plus freight refunds if we shift at least 5 cars of racks to them” is a lot easier when your datacenter has cargo crane capacity. There’s still a place for bespoke DCs but for the cog-in-the-cloud stuff that we have now, it’s not a bad idea! (And, if you add a third rail for power-over-Ethernet, then you can start to have datacenter migrations that don’t cause an outage. Amtrak is already implementing the first stages of datacenter-grade connectivity for riders on their trains, though not amperes of the necessary degree yet.)

joezydeco 7mo ago

A LOT of fiber rides alongside railroad tracks. Easier to string and maintain.